Truth about Therese

Scores of books have been written about St. Thérèse of Lisieux, but this is the first aimed at those persons, Catholic or not, who resist her, put off by all those roses and crudely painted plastic statues . . . and even by her virtues. (Not long before she died, Thérèse’s confessor assured her she had never committed a mortal sin!)

Author Henri Ghéon was once among those put off by Thérèse’s sweet reputation and by the tinseled, sugary devotions to this “little saint.” Then he discovered how many good Catholics, at home in such simple devotions, were soon freed, without even realizing it, from the pretty-pretties that led them on, fnding the real Thérèse beneath the sugar roses and puffy clouds, behind the platitudes and pet-names that took all the salt out of her heroic story.